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Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I are filling all the counter space and floor space with storage for ongoing projects. It is great to see all of the creativity in various stages of development. We are both just hoping we can get all the loose ends tied up before the upcoming holiday break. In 4 th grade the students have been working feverously to complete our clay project. We have learned to roll coils, slip, score and smooth. I was so impressed with all the dedication and hard work that went into this project. I told students the size of your coil pot will depend on your focus. And did they ever focus, some of the pots are huge!!!!The glaze painting of the pot I told the students would be tricky, and again they impressed me with their dedication to get it done right. All of the coil pots were wrapped up and sent home except for three students who were absent and we are working on getting them caught up. Trent was one of the students that was absent the day we made the pots, so he came in during recess to complete. Working one on one with Trent Andrews allowed me some time to snap some pictures of the process. Here Trent is rolling out a coil. Serious work! Now measuring the coil to the length of the paper to ensure that the coil is long enough to cover the circumference of the pot.

Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

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Page 1: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter

Dear All,

The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I are filling all the counter space and floor space with

storage for ongoing projects. It is great to see all of the creativity in various stages of development. We are both

just hoping we can get all the loose ends tied up before the upcoming holiday break.

In 4th grade the students have been working feverously to complete our clay project. We have learned to roll

coils, slip, score and smooth. I was so impressed with all the dedication and hard work that went into this project. I

told students the size of your coil pot will depend on your focus. And did they ever focus, some of the pots are

huge!!!!The glaze painting of the pot I told the students would be tricky, and again they impressed me with their

dedication to get it done right. All of the coil pots were wrapped up and sent home except for three students who were

absent and we are working on getting them caught up. Trent was one of the students that was absent the day we

made the pots, so he came in during recess to complete. Working one on one with Trent Andrews allowed me some

time to snap some pictures of the process.

Here Trent is rolling out a coil. Serious work!

Now measuring the coil to the length of the paper to ensure that the coil is long enough to cover the circumference of the pot.

Page 2: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

He then scored (adding scratch marks in the clay) and slipped (adding clay glue) to each coil.

He then continued the process of adding coils.

He then smoothed out all the imperfections on the inside and

outside of the pot using his best tool, his hands. The next step is

letting the pot air dry until bone dry. In the next newsletter I will

take you through the glazing process.

In Fifth grade, we have been talking about the Johnstown Toy Soldier display. We learned that

the local artist, Paul Lakata, created the soldiers about 14 years ago. The soldiers were created by Barney’s

Sign Company as a way to decorate the downtown park. It started out as a few decorations of Santa and his

reindeer and then with the help of local sponsors it grew to be an army of 20 toy soldiers. Each year the city

displays the soldiers and this has become a tradition that students look forward to every year. I wanted to

discuss different types of artists and careers that students could pursue locally. This tradition that Mr.

Lakata started 14 years ago worked perfectly as a transition into our art lesson.

Page 3: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

It developed into a lesson about nutcrackers and toy soldiers with the students deciding which they would create.

Here students use rulers and circle shapes to sketch out their toy soldier/nutcracker.

Then we outlined with marker. Next, we will use colored pencil and watercolor markers to add color. The

last step will be to embellish with glitter and sequins!!! FUN STUFF!

Page 4: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

In 6th grade we are completing our recycling magazine coil vessels. We had some very small pots and

some very large pots. Many students stayed in during recess in the quest to make the largest vessel.

Dawson and Sebastian in the process of tightly winding the base of their pots.

Kaylee and Molly after mod-podging show their completed pots.

Page 5: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

I hope you have enjoyed the newsletter. We are looking forward to accomplishing much more before the New Year.

Wishing you and your families the very best!!

Artfully yours,

Julia Fisk

Holiday Greetings to all our Warren Street families from Mrs. B’s art classes! Things have been ho-ho-

hopping in the art room this December while all the elves have been producing three-dimensional crafts for gift-

giving as well as learning about the holiday crafts of various cultures.

We started out the month with drawings of wild turkeys and barnyard roosters in the style of the

naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon, who documented birds in their habitat. Sixth graders received a

mini-lesson in two-point perspective to draft farmhouses in the distance of the snowy fields they laid out for their

turkeys to traverse. Mrs. Flanders’ class got to deviate a little with starting a collage-painting of a rooster in his

barnyard habitat. In both cases the objective was to learn about depth: creating the illusion of space, one of the key

“Elements of Art” we have begun studying.

Due to a number of snow days, weather-related delays and special holiday events, we have missed several

classes this month, so Mrs. B opted to put these projects on hold till January and focus the students’ energies and

few remaining art dates on creating three-dimensional work suitable for gift-giving and/or holiday decorating. I

don’t want to ruin any surprises, so I’ll just list some of the projects that students have been working on, but not

their grade level.

Our busy elves have been working on: German nutcrackers, Russian nesting dolls, “bas relief” (low

frontal-projecting sculpture) napkin rings; metallic ornaments and Early American punched tin lanterns.

Page 6: Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter · 2019. 11. 5. · Warren Street Elementary December Art Newsletter Dear All, The art room has been very busy. Mrs. Bielli and I

They are doing a great job and are having a ball. The art room is a hub of activity and crowded with

projects, much like Santa’s workshop must be at this busy time of year.

We hope that you will enjoy the products of the students’ hard work and the creativity and uniqueness that

have gone into each hand-crafted piece.

January will be our catch-up month for projects that have been delayed, before we hopefully start a clay unit

in February.

Many Good Wishes for the Holidays and New Year!

Mrs. B

Luke with his Nutcracker!